God's Tender Mercies Psalm 40:11-12

Text: “Withhold not Thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let
Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth continually preserve me.For innumerable evils have compassed me
about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look
up: they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.”

Psalm
40: 11-12.

Good morning,
totally self-honest Christian!Only the
Christian who is as ‘totally self-honest’ as you, can completely comprehend our
two verse Bible Text for this morning’s lesson.

Read our Bible
text again, beloved Christian friend, and realize the depth of self-honesty
that the Psalmist David is here openly revealing.

Hypocrites,
time-servers, and self-gain professors of Christian faith know nothing of the
depth of self-honesty we are examining this morning.Yet, this depth of self-honesty is the only
depth of honesty about ourselves that the Holy Spirit of God will recognize and
deal with in sincere Christian fellowship daily.

“…Man looketh on
the outer appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”(1 Samuel 16:7b)

Can you and I
openly and publicly declare that our iniquities have taken hold upon us so much
so that we are not able to look up towards our Holy Lord God without
experiencing utter shame?Can we not
also say to the Lord God, ‘Lord, my sins and transgressions are more than the
hairs of mine head: therefore (a conclusion) my heart faileth me.’?

If we can, then
you and I are also recognized by God as totally self-honest Christians – and as
a consequences can be more assured that our daily prayers are not only being
heard by our Holy Lord God of wrath against all sin, but are being answered by
Him!

“If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: but verily (truly) God hath heard
me; He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from
me.”(Psalm 66:18-20)

Biblical Progression: You and I can see the progression
contained within the verses just quoted from Psalm 66:18-20.The believer first recognizes the fact that
there is constant ‘…iniquity in his/her heart…’, and that if that believer
continues to harbour/practice his/her heart’s iniquity, then the Lord God
Almighty – because of His Holiness and abhorrence of sin – is under no Divine
obligation to even hear what is being prayed!

However, due to
the depth of self-honesty the petitioner is manifesting in first declaring all
his/her transgressions to God in open confession to Him, the mercy of the Lord
can be given, and the Lord God is then blessed for not turning away the honest
sinner’s prayer, and for giving His mercy (i.e. forgiveness and sanctification)
to him/her.

In this manner of
self-honesty, in confessing our daily sins/transgressions of God’s Laws, we
place ourselves as ‘self-honest Christians’ before God’s throne of grace, and
receive His blessing of progressive sanctification whereby we can resume and
continue on in close fellowship and service to Him, in Christ Jesus.Hallelujah!Praise God for such Bible truth!

“If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.If we say that we have not sinned, we make
Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)

“Sanctify them
(the elect of God, self-honest Christians) through Thy truth: Thy Word is
truth.”(John 17:17)

When genuine
Christians begin to either feel, or actually experience, a situation where
‘innumerable evils have compassed us about’ – and the author has certainly been
in this dark place – then there is only one thing we sincerely crave: the
‘tender mercies’ of the Lord.

Note also that it
is not only the mercy of the Lord that is being deeply sought by the Psalmist –
it is ‘the tender mercies of the Lord’; God’s love, His compassion, His grace
upon grace; His forgiveness; His reconciling cleansing and renewal of profound
hope.

Only these ‘tender
mercies’ can resolve the universal paradox for genuine Christianity: how to
live a truly Christian life (Christlike) while still trapped in a natural body
of flesh and bone which just loves to continually engage in daily sin!

The apostle Paul,
in total self-honesty, openly expressed his wrestling with this same
issue:“For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man (the new born again spirit): but I see another law in my
members (his natural human flesh/deceitful heart), warring against the law of
my mind (God’s Divine instruction and Spirit), and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:22-23)

God the Spirit
hereby teaches us how to reconcile the reality of trying to live a Holy life
while still bound within a naturally sin-loving, sin-prone, body, and how we are
‘delivered’ from the ‘body of this death’.He thanks God, as all self-honest Christians should, for Salvation in
‘Jesus Christ our Lord’.(Romans
7:24-25)

Thought: God already KNOWS our failings, faults, sins and weaknesses –
yet instructs us to be totally self-honest with ourselves about them, and to
bring them to Him, progressively, for His sanctification and renewal in
prayer.Praise His Name!There will ALWAYS be room at the Cross for
honest sinners!

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Author:

Dr. C.K. McClinton Ph.D.

BA (Hons) MA: PhD; D. Litt.

Pastor of

Ulster/American Christian Fellowship Ministry

Northern Ireland (Ulster) UK

KENNY McCLINTON was one of the most feared men in Northern Ireland (Ulster). His years of terrorist activity culminated in two life sentences for murder and other acts of terrorist violence. He had become a thorn in the side of the authorities. Even in prison he could not be tamed and found himself in solitary confinement punishment cells fifteen times within one nine month period.